The conceit that the Chance Theater's current staging of "Little Women: The Broadway Musical" is "a Holiday Literature Series production," as the show is introduced to us before it begins, is a bit of stretch, as no such series exists.

By the same token, the subhead "Broadway musical" as applied to the 2005 show by Alan Knee (book), Jason Howland (music) and Mindi Dickstein (lyrics) feels less like an accurate term, more imposed by promoters and marketers.

The show features only a couple of company-wide numbers, no real show-stoppers, no huge song-and-dance production numbers and no elements of spectacle – all of the elements the description "Broadway musical" have come to represent.

And, thank goodness for all of that, because this version of "Little Women" is a sweet, gentle, intimate and often wistful tale of four young ladies coming of age during the Civil War at their home in Concord, Mass., while their father is serving as a chaplain in the Union Army.

Director Casey Long and his 11 cast members deliver a heartfelt and often moving experience to audience members of all ages. This is a fine holiday production for families perhaps worn out by seasonal rehashes of "A Christmas Carol."

Main character Jo Marsh (a superb Erika C. Miller) is, of course, the alter-ego of author Louisa May Alcott, who uses the character to show how she evolved from a somewhat manic creator of formulaic potboilers to a serious writer whose first major publication – the 1867 novel "Little Women," of course – revolved around her life and family from 1863 to 1866.

As depicted, the more publishers tried to urge Alcott to give up on becoming a writer and instead marry and start a family, the more urgently she tried to forge a career which numbered precious few women.

The four March sisters are the focus. Eldest sister Meg (Laura M. Hathaway) is a beauty and a romantic. Jo is the hard-charging tomboy. Beth (Tasha Tormey) is kind, gentle and musically talented. Amy (Valerie Sloan) is a vain egotist but also a talented artist.

Long's raft of fine actors make their characters accessible, expressing the now quaintly charming formality of the 19th century without artifice. As in the novel, Marmee is a pillar of strength and wisdom, but in the role, Eloise Coopersmith's scorching song "Days of Plenty" reveals the vulnerability, pain and grief just below the surface, while her solo "Here Alone" is tender and moving

Hathaway's Meg is generous and supportive while boy-crazy but also shy. Tormey is a suitably angelic Beth. Sloan and Kelsey Jones represent Amy at two stages: Sloan as the bratty 11-year-old with the huge sense of entitlement, Jones as the slightly older but more mature young lady, all spite and anger removed.

Chris Caputo, Sherry Domerego, Glenn Koppel and Taylor Stephenson transcend the script's limitations – Caputo as the soft-spoken, courtly teacher from Germany who falls for and marries Jo, Domerego as the imperious, stuffy and snobby Aunt March, Koppel as the wealthy and strait-laced yet kind neighbor Mr. Laurence and Stephenson as the kind, handsome tutor who proposes to Meg.

The character of Laurie, the boy-next-door who becomes Jo's best friend, then falls in love with her, is often glossed over. Long and Brandon Sanchez succeed in making him more well-rounded and realistic, his egotism comically endearing.

At the center of it all is Jo, and Miller highlights the young woman's fierce determination to forge her own path in life and to be treated as the equal of any man. Miller captures Jo's complex nature; her four captivating solos reveal Jo's boldness

Howland's generic sounding music prevents any of the show's 19 songs from being memorable. Where "Little Women" makes its mark is in Dickstein's lyrics, which echo Knee's dialogue and help forge distinctive personalities borne out by the cast's portrayals.

David McCormick's fight choreography lends splashes of color and action to an otherwise staid scenario via the funny, deliberately over-the-top re-creations of scenes from "An Operatic Tragedy," the melodramatic first novel Jo tries in vain to sell, in 1866, before turning to a subject she knows and has lived.

Also eye-appealing are Miller's costumes, a virtual showcase of period finery; Masako Tobaru's storybook-like scenic design of yellowing, oversized blowups of pages from "Little Women"; and Long's projection design, which features various interior and exterior scenes photographed in muted colors, bringing elements of the real world to each scene.

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